I took a hiatus in January, which means this is the first blog for the campaign this year. Prior to my break, I released v2.60E of the campaign, which has been relatively stable. That said, I have picked up on a couple of minor issues, which will be covered in the next release. Also, I have picked up building module two where I had left off at the beginning of January, and making progress once again. Read on for more details and the screenshot of the month.
More Area Work
At the beginning of this year, I am focussing on finishing off the final couple of areas that Stage One of module two requires to be ready for alpha testing. To this end, I have completed another section of an area that serves as multiple locations. That is, the area being worked on, actually serves three locations, with this section being the last (I believe) that I needed to add. I have some scripting left to do for events related to this area section, but I had managed to do the hardest parts just before I took the break.
The time-draining section for me is the tidying up of an area to make sure it looks good in-game. This potentially involves adding blocks and events that allow the area to "unfold" as the player explores it without having sections of the area showing due to existing VFX (visual effects). Unfortunately, some visual effects can show up in sections of an area that the player has not yet reached, which can spoil the immersion. Some are more easily hidden than others, but one or two have required extra work to help maintain the quality I am after.
Another Henchman
The latest module work also gave me the opportunity to introduce the possibility of another henchman. (NB: I am not talking about a companion that a player control, but an additional party member along the lines of Scraps or Sebastion in module one. Although, there will also be the possibility for a couple more companions in the second module as well.) However, this also means I have to examine the logistics of the total number of henchmen that a party may have in it. If a party is already quite large, or is a MP game, I need a fair way of handling how this new henchman is going to respond to such. However, as there are also plot implications involved with some henchmen, I am going to have to see how handling this goes in testing. Note, players can already bring the existing two henchmen from the first module along with them to the second.
Moving Forward
I am hoping that progress will continue as normal this year, although I am conscious that my health is not what it was, and I have to consider more appointments to deal with that alongside module building time. Module one has very few issues now, and any I find are usually as I am testing aspects of module two that I recognise also have an impact on the first module. Therefore, I am spending less time addressing fixes there, which is allowing me the time to focus on the second module. My wife is still testing various aspects of the campaign as a whole (both modules), but has not found anything major in the last few areas of testing. I also have another tester who is quite thorough, and has not yet had any other issues to report other than confirmation of old issues being fixed, which is encouraging.
As I allude to, I have already returned to the toolset and started to familiarise with where I was last at, and hope to be in a better position to be underway as normal next week. In the meantime, I will leave you will a screenshot from the latest area I am working on.
